Nine Days, Nine Nights
by heartwish
Summary: Troy remembers how she giggled sweetly, her grin seeming to encompass the lower half of her face. He also remembers how beautiful she had looked that night, even though he hadn't realized it at the time. How he wish he had. TxG


**February 20, 2010  
9:42 AM**

Her small hands grip the steering wheel as she stares out the windshield and across the green. She needs to get out of the car since she is running late for class, but she can't bring herself to move. There are a few people milling around but she only has her eye on one of them.

For the past few days, every time she has seen him, she thinks of how he has not changed one bit since senior year of high school. Sure, he has grown taller with more defined muscles. And maybe his hair is darker than what it used to be, no longer in a shaggy cut but styled in a casually messy way. But his eyes are the same color, a piercing bright blue that makes many a girl's heart melt instantly. And he usually wears that same lopsided smile, showing off his easy going attitude. The way he is standing there right now, left calf over right with his arms crossed, as he chats animatedly with the girl in front him, occasionally reaching up to scratch the back of his neck. She knows that motion all too well; something was making him nervous.

Her stomach gives a little lurch at the thought that the blonde in front of him is what's making him nervous. The blonde, in her mind, quickly transforms into a leggy brunette with blue eyes.

_Gabriella,_ _stop_, she scolds herself,_ don't think like that,_ why do you even care? But who is she kidding, if anyone was sitting beside her, the grip that made her knuckles pale would prove to them that she is bothered.

Damn, why is she still sitting here?

She tears her eyes away from the two on the green and looks down at the clock on the dashboard. She is already late for class, but that did not mean she still can't slip in. Besides, its not like the professor cares when students waltz in after he's started lecture.

She reaches behind the passenger seat to retrieve her messenger bag before opening the door and stepping out into the cool air. She takes a deep breath and lifts her head high, determined to make it to class with no interaction with the boy.

Hiking her bag up on the shoulder, she begins to make her way across the green to the building. The closer she gets to the building, the closer she gets to the boy. She avoids eye contact, instead pulling out her phone to make herself seemed occupied. But it doesn't help.

"Hey Gabs!" the blonde calls out, turning away from her conversation to greet her friend as she approaches.

"Hey Sharpay," Gabriella responds as she approaches, "Late for class, I'll text you later?" She doesn't want to stop and even though she really does feel bad about being tardy, that isn't the reason.

Sharpay gives her a pointed look as the two communicate telepathically. Finally, she just gives her best friend a slight nod before saying, "Cool, we can hang out once you get out of class. Coffee or something."

Gabriella just nods. She's now almost where Sharpay is standing and refuses to respond to the pair of eyes she feels burning into her face. The look on Sharpay's face prompts Gabriella to give a nod of her own, silently saying that she was fine.

Her stomach is in a tight coil.

A few more steps and she can breathe easy again.

"Hey Gabriella," a smooth yet hesitant voice greets as she gets right up beside where Sharpay and he are standing.

Shit._ Don't stop_, Gabriella commands herself. The courteous side of her makes her respond though, trying to sound confident. "Hello Troy."

She doesn't care that her response is curt, borderline rude. Nor does she care if he sees her pace speed up; she just wants the hell out of there.

When she reaches the building, her hand grips the handle and jerks it back, the door swinging open violently. A whoosh of air leaves her mouth as she releases a breath she realizes she had been holding.

What was that?

What had just happened?

They had been friends, best friends. And now, she can't even say hi to him. Seriously, what the fuck.

In the past nine days, her world has flipped upside down.

-----

Troy stares at the door where the petite, dark haired girl had disappeared into moments earlier. He doesn't blame her for her lack of greeting, or her speedy pace.

The only one he can blame is himself.

"I wish you would tell me what the hell is up between you guys," the blonde comments, bringing him out of his reverie. At that, he just makes a face at her.

"You don't have to know everything, Sharpay," he responds coolly, letting his eyes drop to become fixated on the ground, all his interest seemingly drawn to her Jimmy Choo's.

Sharpay's face scrunches up into an expression that is a mix between anger and hurt. She steps forward and forcefully pokes her perfectly manicured finger into the male's chest, "Excuse me if I want to know why my two best friends all of a sudden stopped being best friends. Excuse me if I want to know what could have been so big that it has made you the complete opposite of what you two were. Excuse me if I care!" She punctuates each of her exclamations with another sharp poke.

Troy takes all the abuse with a hard expression, his emotions carefully guarded. But, on the inside, her tirade only makes him even more defeated than he already is.

"Well?" Sharpay prods, her expression not as infuriated but her determination still there. After all, she never did like being left out of the loop of things.

It takes Troy a moment to gather his thoughts, to try and think up an answer that will satisfy his blonde friend without actually revealing the answer. Sighing, he finally lifts his eyes up to meet Sharpay's light brown ones, "I made a shitty mistake, Shar." His usually loud and confident voice is quiet, "I had told her everything. Every little thing. But then I went and royally fucked up. " His eyes fall back to the ground and he swallows the lump in his throat. "I lost her."

Sharpay lets the answer sink into her mind as she watches her friend's gaze travel back to the building where, unbeknownst to the both of them, the girl he was speaking of is standing with her head in her hands, equally exhausted and defeated.

* * *

A/N: So this was originally posted on my old account littlemyraling and I took it down, deciding that writing a story that personal was not something I was ready for. But here it is again, tweaked in a way so that it still holds its previous content, but slightly altered to fit the storyline I created. I pretty much suck at writing in present tense but I thought it fit best for this story, so I'm sorry if there are grammar mistakes. I was never a hotshot with that kind of stuff. And another fair warning, this story is _in medias res_, so the next chapter will go back in time. Six days to be exact ;)

Reviews?


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